


The Beast and Maurice

by babykid528



Category: Beauty and the Beast (1991), Beauty and the Beast - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-15
Updated: 2014-09-15
Packaged: 2018-02-17 10:44:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2306858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babykid528/pseuds/babykid528
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>What if Belle never came to the tower and took her father's place? What if it was up to Maurice to break the curse himself?</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beast and Maurice

**Author's Note:**

> I saw [this post on tumblr](http://berryciesta.tumblr.com/post/95647210032/batbcomic-designerreign-if-belle-never-found) last night and it had me in tears, I was laughing so hard. 
> 
> [artless](http://archiveofourown.org/users/artless/pseuds/artless) encouraged me to write the fic for it, so this is her fault. ;-)

_“If he could learn to love another, and earn their love in return,_  
 _By the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken._  
 _If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time._  
 _As the years passed, he fell into despair, and lost all hope._  
 _For who could ever learn to love a beast?”_ - Prologue (Beauty and the Beast)

\---

 

"Couldn't keep quiet, could we?" Cogsworth grumbled in a low whisper at his companion. "Just had to invite him to stay, didn't we?  _O, Monsieur, welcome, come warm yourself by zee fire..._ Serve him tea. Sit in the master's chair. Pet the pooch!" 

Cogsworth's volume increased until he was shouting.

Lumiere couldn't help flinching.

"I was trying to be hospitable," he said, defending his actions.

Cogsworth clamped his mouth shut in a tight line before releasing a huff of air.

"Hospitable," he said, tone mocking. "Yes, well, I'm sure he thinks the drafty tower is  _very hospitable!_ " 

He ended in another shout.

"Yes, well, the Master can't keep him up there forever," Lumiere said, ever the bright optimist.

Cogsworth resisted the urge to knock the candlestick down the stairs.

\---

 

"Master..." Lumiere said, voice sheepish, but still loud enough to be heard.

The beast growled out a quiet, "What?" 

Somewhat fortified, Lumiere straightened up as he made his next suggestion, "Since the man is going to be with us for quite some time, I was just thinking - you might want to offer him a more comfortable room." 

The only response from the Master was a louder growl as he went lumbering past, blowing out the flames atop Lumiere's candles. 

Lumiere swallowed past the lump in his throat, relighting his wicks with a soft flicker, before mumbling to himself, "Then again, maybe not!"

\---

 

"This is undoubtedly not what the Enchantress had in mind when she set her spell," Cogsworth said.

"The  _sorcière_  said that Master must find the beauty within," Lumiere corrected, "That someone,  _anyone_ , must love Master and be loved by him in return."

"But this old man -" Cogsworth began, and Lumiere cut him off with a hiss.

" _Monsieur is our one last hope_!" 

\---

 

"Well bless my soul," Mrs. Potts gasped, watching the garden from the Kitchen windows.

"I can't..." Cogsworth let whatever more he was going to say die on his lips.

Lumiere leaned in closer to him to get a better look out at the snowy scene unfolding below, throwing his arm casually around the clock.

"Now do you see?" He asked, practically whispering against the side of Cogsworth's face. Cogsworth was for once thankful he no longer had the ability to blush.

"Momma, what's going on?" Chip called from across the counter, hopping his way over to see what everyone was looking at. He paused when he saw the Master and Maurice apparently laughing in the snow.

Chip turned and looked at the shocked faces of his mother and Cogsworth, and the luminescent grin on Lumiere's face.

"Why are you all looking like that?" the little cup asked.

"Never you mind," Mrs. Potts scolded him, nudging him back over to the cupboard.

"This can't actually be happening," Cogsworth whispered, still transfixed by the activities below.

"You need more faith,  _mon ami_ ," Lumiere told him, squeezing him just briefly before going off, no doubt to gloat somewhere else.

\---

 

"God help us all," Cogsworth sighed, watching from the doorway as Lumiere coached the Master on how to have a successful evening with the man while Coatrack made an absolute mess of Master's hair.

He went to hop off to check on the other half of the evening's duo, but not before Lumiere caught his eye and offered him a cheeky wink.

Cogsworth expected to find Maurice in a similar state as the Master - being groomed but not quite dressed. Instead, he found the man decked out in a floor length, golden gown, with Wardrobe lacing the back of it shut.

"WHAT ON HEAVEN AND EARTH?" Cogsworth barked before he could stop himself.

Maurice turned nervous eyes toward the clock and Wardrobe looked apologetic.

"I know," she tsked, "I didn't have anything more appropriately colored for his complexion. Not anything regal enough, anyway."

"Does it look bad?" Maurice asked.

 _Does it look_   _bad_?

Cogsworth managed to stop himself from punching himself in the face, but just barely.

"You are in a dress," he said, as calm as he'd ever sounded.

Maurice and Wardrobe just blinked back at him.

A silence stretched out between the three.

"You don't think it's pretty enough?" Maurice asked.

Cogsworth laughed, helplessly and hopelessly, and just shook his head.  _Finally, he had lost it._

" _C'est très magnifique, Monsieur_ ," the feather duster, Babette's, voice drifted over Cogsworth's shoulder, and his hysterical laughter, to reassure the man.

Her answer brought a blush to Maurice's cheeks, one that stunned Cogsworth silent, and restored order to the room once again.

The feather duster pushed Cogsworth out of the doorway with a hissed order to wait to make the introductions on the staircase, and she entered the room in Cogsworth's place, shutting the door behind her.

\---

 

To characterize the night's events as surreal would not even begin to cover everything.

Cogsworth recovered a modicum of his slipping sanity in time to make the introduction, like he was ordered to do, without even a single chuckle or snort, despite the fact that both Master and man were wearing the most ridiculous, lovestruck expressions the clock had ever seen on two people before. And no one even commented on the fact that Maurice was wearing a gown, except the Master who complimented him on his  _ensemble_ as they headed in to dinner.

As the Master and Maurice ate, Cogsworth caught Lumiere watching him from across the dining room. The candlestick offered him a warm smile, devoid of his usual smug lasciviousness. It warmed something deep inside the clock and he tried not to think about that too hard as they moved to the ballroom.

The Master and Maurice danced for what seemed like hours, lost in the rhythm of the music and one another's eyes. As absurd as the whole thing may have seemed to Cogsworth, he did find himself on the verge of shedding a tear at their obvious bliss.

"They look happy," Lumiere said, startling Cogsworth.

He had been so absorbed in the dancers, he had not noticed Lumiere approach. The candlestick stood close to his side, smiling that same warm smile from before.

"They do," Cogsworth agreed.

It may have been the first time in their entire relationship that Cogsworth had ever willingly agreed with Lumiere about anything.

Lumiere, to his credit, did not take the moment to gloat. He just wrapped his arm around Cogsworth and held him close, bathing the clock in his glow and warmth. 

\---

 

[[  _Meanwhile… in the West Wing of the castle…_  ]]

The rose from the scorned Enchantress stood beneath its glass dome, its soft glow dimming further as the number of fallen petals surrounding it increased. The time had come when only one last petal remained. Its light flickered as it barely clung to the stem, on the verge of falling.

And then, the single petal’s last wavering motions stopped. 

Time and space seemed to stand still in and around the dome as fallen petals swirled up in a flurry of sparks and color, consuming the flower whole, and turning the glass dome into the brightest beam of light. It rose up like a pillar and filled the room, like a new star being born. Then, a swirling mass of sparkles, like stardust, began to wrap it’s way throughout and over the castle walls, bathing everything it touched in a brightness none of it had seen since before the curse was cast.

It rushed into the ballroom and engulfed the occupants, raising all but Maurice into the air and transforming them before his bewildered eyes.

When it was finished, when they were once again human, and their castle was once again restored to its former glory, Cogsworth got to his feet, unsteadily. Lumiere crashed into his side a moment later, wrapping his arms, his real human arms, around Cogsworth’s waist. Digging his real human fingers into Cogsworths’ back. Laughing loud and unrestrained before shaking Cogsworth from side to side.

“ _Mon ami, mon ami, c'est un miracle,_ ” Lumiere exclaimed in a rush, “I told you it would work!”

And while Cogsworth watched the Master, newly restored to his handsome human form, as he kissed Maurice over Lumiere’s shoulder, Lumiere leaned in and kissed Cogsworth, square on the mouth.

Cogsworth just sighed, closed his eyes, and let him.

It felt _great_ to be human again.


End file.
